December 14, 2018

The U: Talented And Smart

Twenty-six student-athletes earned degrees Thursday from the University of Miami in 2018 Fall Commencement exercises, which were conducted at the Watsco Center on the UM campus in Coral Gables. The UM student-athletes were among the more than 1,000 University of Miami undergraduate and graduate students who earned their degrees during the fall ceremonies.

Graduates from all of the University of Miami's schools and colleges were recognized by name and walked across the stage to be congratulated by University President Julio Frenk and their respective academic deans.

"Today is a memorable day for 26 of our student-athletes as they achieve their goal of earning a degree from the University of Miami," Director of Athletics Blake James said. "It's a testament to the hard work and dedication displayed by these outstanding young men and women, and I couldn't be prouder of them. I can't wait to see where their life's journey takes them from here, and I hope they realize that they are always welcome back and will always be a part of our U Family."

Seven of Miami's athletics programs were represented in the fall graduation ceremonies. The football team led all programs with 13 graduates, including 2018 All-ACC honorees Jaquan Johnson, Michael Jackson, Sheldrick Redwine and Tyree St. Louis.

Women's golf standout Dewi Weber will earn her bachelor's degree in advertising/motion pictures. She is one of the most decorated student-athletes in UM golf history as a three-time All-American.

The list also features several former Hurricanes who returned to school to complete their degrees, including former First-Team All-America defensive back Daryl Williams, who played at UM from 1989-91 before moving on to an 11-year NFL career with the Cincinnati Bengals and Seattle Seahawks. He was an NFL Pro Bowl honoree in 1997 and inducted into the UM Hall of Fame in 2017.

Former men's basketball standout Darius Rice also returned to earn his degree. Rice ranks fourth in career scoring at UM with 1,865 points and was a three-time All-BIG EAST honoree. He played at UM from 2000-04 and has had a 14-year professional basketball career.

Additionally, the list includes baseball standouts Danny Garcia, Ricky Eusebio and Brandon Lopez, each of whom went on to play professional baseball, and Tyriq McCord, a former football linebacker who played in 51 career games.

Like any other coach, if Richt fails then ultimately he will not be here. If that happens, I want the talent base to be as strong as possible for his successor. I'd rather his successor be granted a roster that had the balance of Richt's in 2016, rather than the hollowed out roster that Golden had in 2011 where the bulk of the talent were juniors and seniors thanks to two disastrous recruiting classes in 2010 and 2011. Or the imbalanced roster that Shannon inherited in 2007, where our numbers on offense almost compelled us to adopt a Triple Option.

JP is definitely a Jacksonville legend. I also heard that he is a pretty good basketball player. I am surprised he only ran a 4.74, although I heard somewhere that Jerry Rice was a 4.7 receiver. I don’t think Michael Irvin was a burner either, but they both are in the HOF. Plus, it’s not uncommon for some FLORIDA HS recruits to dramatically improve their 40 times after they arrive in college and get into college training programs.

I watched JP at the Hurricane camps. I didn’t have to look for JP, because he really stood out. Hazelwood, who I also like a lot, ran a few individual drills then shut it down. However, JP competed on every rep, and you could see that competition was fun to him. JP talked smack, but it was clean and makes him likable.

JP is the kind of player that knows how to get open, catch the football and make plays. JP is confident and has a magnetic personality.

That would be outstanding Windy if our idiotic coach knew how to use them. Langham, cager and Wiggins over Pope, Hightower and Thomas is unforgiving (and yes I said Thomas because having those others in took away valuable snaps) AND as others said, how many times was the Wrong receiver used in the route (ie a Short guy for a fade, a slow, big guy rather than a speedy guy etc); how many passes was he going to let cager and Wiggins drop until he used the clearly more talented better guys;
What a shame this guy is still our OC and making the kind of money he makes!
Windy, there’s NO sugar coating this cluster f..k!

Ah, wouldn't it be nice to be Bama for one recruiting cycle. 24 croots. 23 four and five star players. The lone 3 star is a kicker. Reading where they even project Jordan Battle to Bama. Us poor dumpster divers are flipping App.St. croots.

I 25 and 21 year old daughters, a 14 year old step daughter and a 24 and 22 year old nieces. Two of them went away to major universities, one of which was FSU.

They all told me there is a coverup culture for athletes. Baylor is that culture gone rampantly wrong, especially when you consider it is a Christian University with a very small enrollment by big time football standards.

There is absolutely ZERO chance the conduct of those players in that small town, small school envinronment.

Ignorance is the most cowardly defense they could possibly have taken.

They created a cesspool for money and their greed let it become out of control.

They put profit above lives the same way the radical feminist agenda does.

We don’t care who we destroy as long as it makes an extra buck.

People with daughters tend to side on the protection of women at ANY AND ALL COSTS.

I know first hand that this is myopic view is silly and destructive. Selective accountability always ends in disaster.

There is reason previous generations separated the sexes and married hem early. We dismantled that system without careful consideration for the consequences.

Now vested interests are running amok and using our natures against us for profit and we are not taking the honest, courageous, and balanced mindset necessary to protect our people.

How can you destroy Briles career given the SYSTEMIC nature of what happened at Baylor? People as a whole are NEVER better than the systems that control them.

Dave Chappell made a brilliant comment when talking about the dark side of Hollywood that in order to change corrupt systems and improve human behavior, you have to give people a safe place to acknowledge their role in the system, because the perpetrators are often victims as well.

Until we get beyond our fears, self interests, and egos to create this place, we will continue down the path to destruction.

Solar, have already snapped and spent several nights in da calaboose for our losing transgressions. The Herb hates being an afterthought, which we are once again. I was once optimistic, uh about 10 years ago and then we had that no doze Shannon for a head coach and Jaboney (color blind) Harris at QB. Somebody slapped me and it wuzz 10 years later and I'm still living the nightmare.

LOL. Look at all the excuse making flying around now! So being a “tough guy badazz FAN” is holding coaches accountable for teaching football & managing games. NO EXCUSES. JUST WIN”.

But 50+ women... people bring complaints, raise accusations etc. and now only 1 guy is accountable?!? The rest are blameless because there’s NO PROOF. THERES NO PROOF BECAUSE THE ACCUSATIONS WERE BURIED... NOT PURSUED... NOT INVESTIGATED... STANDARD PROCEDURES IN THE EVENT OF POSSIBLE CRIMINAL ACTIVITY WERE NOT FOLLOWED.

Read up on the story. This ain’t a one off he said/she said. If the school was a CANE rival or program that won a NC by beating the CANES and not some obscure private school far away, u guys would be blowing up with righteous indignation.

Hey! Instead of taking the coward easy way out, Mark “I suk at everything & always have” Richt should’ve grown a pair... I hear there’s a dam good DC in an easy to find location. Jerry Sandusky has some free time on his hands these days. He deserves a 2nd chance, right?

Read up on the story. This ain’t a one off he said/she said. If the school was a CANE rival or program that won a NC by beating the CANES and not some obscure private school far away, u guys would be blowing up with righteous indignation.

Posted by: DallasTX Cane | December 16, 2018 at 03:52 PM

No, this is different.

There are credible allegations in this scandal as opposed to many other scandals around.

I am speaking to the big picture of how things got to this point, Baylor and beyond.

I could care less if we hire Briles or not.

Personally I like Yost and Bedenbaugh.

But the righteous indignation you speak of is why I bothered to post on this topic.

The way he is being dealt with is exactly why people turn a blind eye to wrongdoing. As oc working 10-16 hour days at the program, what was he supposed to do given EVERYTHING that was going on?

He told recruits the truth that Baylor had a lot of “white women” that liked football players. Between the drugs, guns, and sexual impropriety, it was a mess. He was supposed to throw himself on the sword in the midst of a multimillion dollar operation over possibly hearing rumors?

He is not a cop or administrator. Who reported these incidents to him? I guess you can say he should suspend/dismiss guys, but even that isn’t his call. So what then he quits and goes on a crusade to destroy his FATHER?

It’s easy to stand around and be indignant about what someone else should do. I do it al the time with Mark Richt, but this is different.

The sheepish nature of humans is why I always look at systems first when assessing a situation. People are weak and they go where they are lead 99% the time.

Rather than speculate on what someone else should or should not have known or done, I focus on how we make it so easy for people to do the weak things that they do so predictably.

You’re not wrong, TruCane81. Young Briles probably has less “direct responsibility” than many others including admin and law enforcement. But, how do such systems exist & survive? Only because everyone has an easy “what can I really do?...it’s not really my fault” way out. Exchange Jews for women & multiply the crimes by 1M, what do you get? Yeah, extreme example. I know. This scandal wasn’t a bunch of “entertainment ladies” suddenly discovering next morning regret. There were female student athletes assaulted, multiple arrests, several convictions. The coverup occurred over 4 years. At least one of the players involved had been dismissed from a Power 5 program for previous sexual assault. The University president & AD both resigned in addition to Papa Briles. That school got off light in my opinion. Same as Penn St got off light.

My righteous indignation comment is directed towards the Penn St deserved the death penalty crowd that still refers to Pedi U and such but yet can’t look past Briles’ past sins fast enough. If Baylor had beat Miami in the Fiesta Bowl in 86 and Penn St was an obscure never won nothing program, they’d want Sandusky for DC and Trump to build a wall around Waco.

Briles May be one of the smaller fish in the Baylor scum pond but to the “no proof hire him”... give me a break. He reeks of it.

Canespacers, our problems ain't Baylor or Penn. St, that's their problem. Obviously it didn't hurt Penn. St to long, they have made it back. Time, apparently heals old wounds. In college football fans forget real quick the bad stuff and never forget the good. We are like that. We, well not The Herb constantly talk about Butch Davis, just like it was yesterday. Every time a coaching change is mentioned, it's Butch. We don't talk about Pell grants or all the rule changes in college football because how rude we were to our opponents back in the day. Hugh freeze he been forgiven and Saban has no problem with giving coaches a second chance as long as they help him win. Briles, will be the same way, at least the son. Our problems have nothing to do with Baylor.

I would say they had a sucks but The Herb is jealous because he doesn't have the same oops u guys that live in Flo. I have to wait every other year for them to play ilat Duke or UNC to see them play. The agony or ecstasy only happens every 2 years.
I did not go to school at Day but I am as die hard as u can get for the last 36 years and have the tats to prove it. I read every blog, newspaper recruiting blog, all things da u, especially recruiting. Started doing that with Street and Smith in 1970.

I was once optimistic, uh about 10 years ago and then we had that no doze Shannon for a head coach and Jaboney (color blind) Harris at QB. Somebody slapped me and it wuzz 10 years later and I'm still living the nightmare.

B. More than my wife could ever imagine, but hey it's all about The U.

C. I could have therapy two sessions a day for five years and still have money in the bank.

D. They will name a building for me one day.

Posted by: solarcane | December 16, 2018 at 06:13 PM

While studying at UM between 1981-1986 my favorite answer was ALWAYS all of the above. At the time I was a Dean's List student with a 3.83 GPA and graduated Cum Laude. Those were some REALLY good times.

However, at the current time and in this particular case the correct answer is A & B and sometimes C, but never D.

100,000 bitter blog posts will be forgotten on 8/31/19 when Linguard is unleashed on a field of unsuspecting reptiles and the turnover chain is passed around like a newborn at a christening and your Miami Hurricanes roll the Florida Gators up like a half dry booger.... Lol.... Until then do what Cane fans do.......

I'll tell u what I'm going to do is bitch, until this situation rights it's self. With Richt calling plays and the uncertantity which is our not so special, special teams. Who knows what will have back on Dee. Flo. Ain't nothing special but their nothing special beats our haven't got a clue all day long!

That feeling in the Orange Bowl after the UCLA game is etched in my mind forever, everybody's face was like
Hell Yea!!
You are right some of those moments make this cluster seem worth it.

Posted by: solarcane | December 16, 2018 at 06:52 PM

Wish I could have been there.

I missed that game playing in a basketball tournament my senior year.

I was still reeling from that 60 burger beat down Mcnabb and Harrison put on us up in the dome.

I was SHOCKED we took down a quality UCLA team that had previously owned us. Remember the fake Kareem? I still have not seen Edge torching those guys for almost 300 yards. Thank God for YouTube. Might be watching it tonight.

The fact that some really good folks have stuck around here for over 11 years is just amazing. Some have come and gone, some left and came back and some have been here from the beginning to now. All along it has been a bit WHACK but fun.

Soup
I still remember a private email from you all those years ago saying any one of us could do a better job blogging about the Canes than ______ over at the Sun Sentinel.
Not too many are aware of all those discussions we had every night.
Then you proved you were right and we all did a mass exodus to Canespace
Much respect my friend

Soup, The Herb loves this blog. I love the interaction with the guys and gals
. It's informative, being that I'm in, NC. I have some place to vent, which I do quit often! I'm thankful to U for the opportunity to voice my pleasures or displeasures. As I said on here before, I grew up a Bama fan. Once Bear Bryant died it just wasn't, the same and I hated ND and Day always played those cock suckers and I loved the colors so I switched and haven't looked back. I may bitch, alot but I was right about o e thing and that was the DT position, which I bitched about forever. Once we got some our Dee has been solid. Now I'm onto the OLine and specifically the tackle position. I ain't giving up hope but It's hard not too when u have idiots running the show and knowing how lousy the ACC is as a whole.

The Herb U are correct we need to fix our Tackle Positions on our OL and get a good QB that will manage the game be accurate and not turnover prone and look out we will be back kicking arse and taking names Daddy.

Yeah, let him go and freeze his azz off. At 190 lbs for an lb that ain't enough lard to keep u from freezing. No loyality, all these legacy players going to lose somewhere else. Maybe we will end up with another flip from App St.. We now have limited depth at Lb. If those dogs leave early we may end up with 6 lbs on ship. This is a disgrace. 16 decoms. I would understand if we finished 3-9 but these croots must know something we don't.

Have to say this. His dad was average and I'll go out on a limb and say he will be too. We need to be crooting dogs that have got some meat on their bones. At least go after some guys that weigh 210. I don't think Bama is crooting 190 lbs last I looked. Thanks for the favor
And your heavy heart.

Terrance,
Getting our share of what, fighting off the likes of FIU, FAU and So. Flo. Oh and App. St. We will get our righfull position in the college higharchy real quick. We need talent. We don't need our share of share croppers.